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The CAN state chairman says he will remain in office until election is conducted.
The sacked chairman of the Plateau state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Philip Dafes, has disregarded his removal by the national executive of the association, saying he remains fully in charge of the chapter.
Mr. Dafes said national officials of the association had no legal backing to ask him out of office, and that he would therefore remain the leader of the association in the state until fresh elections were conducted.
“CAN’s constitution does not empower the national secretariat to dissolve any state executive and as such, the action of the national CAN on me cannot stand,” he said.
He stated this on Wednesday while addressing journalists on the pronouncement of the national executive of CAN dissolving the leadership of the Plateau chapter.
“What the national secretariat of CAN has done is an act of illegality, because they do not have such powers under the constitution of CAN to remove or dissolve an elected state official,” he thundered. “Only a duly constituted state congress has such powers; and since no such thing has happened, I still remain the Chairman of CAN in Plateau state until the election of new exco is held.”
It would be recalled that some members of the national executive of CAN, led by Sunday Oibe, national director of research and planning, and Albert Ukah, national legal officer and director of public affairs, had last Friday, after a meeting with some officials and other stakeholders of CAN in plateau state, dissolved the state executive of CAN in the state following its inability to conduct elections for a new set of officials after the expiration of their tenure in June.
According to CAN national, the association has no room for interim officials, therefore elections must be held on or before the expiration of the tenure of each official, but the state failed in acting according to CAN regulations, hence the dissolution.
Mr. Dafes said it was not his making that the election did not hold before the expiration of his tenure, and that arrangement was being made to conduct the election soon.
The national body has however mandated the state to hold the election on September 28, unfailingly.
The embattled Plateau CAN Chairman also dismissed allegations of financial misappropriation levelled against his administration, insisting that the association’s funds were intact adding that the allegations were being peddled by those bent on tarnishing his image.
Critics are accusing Mr. Dafes of postponing the election to enable him to cover up some financial malfeasance. He has also been criticised for allegedly failing to convene the general assembly of the association three years after he was elected.
According to the CAN constitution, congresses are expected to be held each year to deliberate on important issues concerning the association. But the current Plateau officials, under the leadership of Mr. Dafes, failed to do so, some members said.
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